Early America Games The noun "game" comes from the Old English word "gamen" which means joy, fun and amusement. It also derives from the Old High German word "gaman," meaning joy or glee. And the Gothic "gamann" indicates participation and communion. Its first use was around 1300 meaning a "contest played according to rules." Because colonial children didn't have television, video games or many books to read they often created their own games. Or played the same games played by their parents and grandparents when they were young. In early America these games taught children skills they would use later in life. Two games are presented here to sharpen your skills. Our Crossword Puzzles also test your knowledge of early America's history.
King George's War After this brief season of peace the colonists were obliged to face another long and murderous war. In character this war was similar to that which preceded it, a contest over Acadia and New France, consisting of surprises and bloody massacres. Early in the conflict the coast of Maine was swept by bands of savage red men and equally savage Frenchmen, and hundreds of men, women, and children were tomhawked or carried into captivity. On an intensely cold morning in February, 1704, at daybreak, a party of nearly four hundred French and Indians broke upon the town of Deerfield, and with their terrible war cry began their work of destruction and slaughter. Nearly fifty of the inhabitants were slain, and more than a hundred were carried into captivity.1 A few years later Haverhill, Massachusetts, met with a fate similar to that of Deerfield. A beginning of English success was thus made, and the bold scheme of oonquering Canada was now conceived. Footnotes Ibid., p.173.
Colonial America for kids *** King William's War King James II of England, unlike his profligate brother, Charles II, was extremely religious, and his religion was that of Rome. The large majority of the people of England were Protestants; but they would have submitted to a Catholic king had he not used his official power to convert the nation to Catholicism. From the time of James's accession, in 1685, the unrest increased, until, three years later, the opposition was so formidable that the monarch fled from his kingdom and took refuge in France. Louis XIV, the king of France, was a Catholic and in full sympathy with James. The war began by a series of Indian massacres instigated by Frontenac, the governor of Canada. The war spirit was now aroused throughout the colonies. The war dragged on for several years longer, but it consisted only in desultory sallies and frontier massacres. In 1697 a treaty of peace was signed at Ryswick, a village near The Hague, and the cruel war was temporarily over. Footnotes 1See supra, p.141.
King George's War This war, known by the above name in America, was but the faint glimmer of the dreadful conflagration that swept over Europe at this time under the name of the War of the Austrian Succession. On the death of Charles VI, emperor of Austria, in 1740, the male line of the House of Hapsburg became extinct, and his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, ascended the Austrian throne. But there were other claimants, and the matter brought on a war of tremendous dimensions, embroiling nearly all the nations of Europe. Again we find France and England on opposite sides, war being declared between them in the spring of 1744. Of this great war we have little to record here, as little of it occurred in America. Aside from the usual Indian massacres, but one great event marks King George's War -- the capture of Louisburg. Louisburg, as we have noticed, was built on a point of land on Cape Breton Island; it commanded the chief entrance to the greatest of American rivers, except only the "Father of Waters."
The Truth about The First Thanksgiving